Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Watching Pope Francis from afar: some considerations

1. It was a long, multi-faceted
preparation, from spiritual to physical to choreographic to fashion-oriented to
artistic to security-meticulous. Sometimes one would wish that those who did
the artistic or physical or security preparations also did the spiritual
preparations as well. It would have helped avoid egregious things, such as the
alleged ‘detention’ of street children to remove, as it were, potential
‘eyesores’ to the papal vision. Trouble is, if true, the utter lack of spirituality
in a one-dimensional preparation more often than not results in authorities
doing an Imelda instead of a Fr. Flanagan to street children and other eyesores
of the republic.

2. Pope Francis
is a living proof that there is a Holy Spirit and that he is still very active
in the Roman Catholic Church. His election to the Chair (not throne please,
popes are not kings but pastors) of St. Peter in a world filled with the
massive shadows of terrorism, hatred, injustice, racism,
economic-social-political inequities (as ever) truly brings the smile of God on
people tired of the dark horizons. Obviously his papal election belongs in the
realm of light and light comes from the Spirit of the Living God.

3. It is truly
amazing how people among even those unable to personally ‘encounter’ the Holy
Father but who watch him on television confess to feeling “truly happy” and
“joyful” by the mere sight of him. I know. The social media broadcast that
fact. Reactions to him are more often than not ‘trending’. I believe it is
because the papacy is truly a testimony to the sacramentality of the Church.
Catholics often take it for granted that they encounter Jesus Christ through
Word and Sacrament defined fundamentally as “a visible material sign that
convey and effect an invisible immaterial grace”. In a sense the Holy Father,
being the visible head of the Roman Catholic Church, by the sacramentality of
that same Church, brings to us the invisible presence of our invisible Head,
Jesus Christ. No wonder he elicits joy in a way reminiscent of how Jesus’
presence in Mama Mary’s womb elicits joy in John the Baptist still in his own
mother’s womb. This is what a Catholic loses when he leaves the Church. This is
what non-Catholics miss by the fact that they simply center on the Word.

4. Pope Francis
is often mistakenly characterized as a “cool celebrity” with humble, easy and non-judgmental ways oozing
‘mercy and compassion’ to the suffering and the marginalized, however
unpleasant sometimes to the naked eye
some of those he hugs or kisses. But he is also a tough prophet even
with his gentle manners. This is, for example, shown in his Malacaṅang visit when
in the face of a president who prides himself in being the epitome of
anti-corruption politics he called on all Filipinos to stamp out corruption in
all levels of their society. It was like telling the janitor to have his house
swept thoroughly before he would even think of saying what he does for a
living.

5. I was struck
when he urged the clergy to shun compromises with the materialistic mindsets of
the world by kicking the ‘complacency’ that makes them accepting of the
“scandalous inequalities/inequities” of society. I was wondering if the Holy
Father was also indirectly referring to the “scandalous inequities” among the
Filipino clergy themselves. The fundamental illness of Philippine society can
be traced, in clerical theological lingo, to the lack of real working
‘communion’ within the Philippine Church. We preach with enthusiasm and
righteous gusto on ‘communion’ through faith that does justice, the very
foundation of charity or Christian love. But as to whether we walk the talk we
see concretely in priests in urban centers having multi-million worth SUVs, condos
and other properties plus regular trips outside the country while their counter
parts in the provinces barely make ends meet. Diocesan priests from the
provinces migrating to urban centers or outside the country then is hardly a
surprising reality but its scandalous character is almost on par with wealthy
clergymen who stay blind to their brethren’s conditions. Real working
‘communion’ must start with the clergy. Bishops and decision-makers in the
Church must truly allow the full implications of the gospel to shake our very
institutions to the tune of love founded on justice done by faith. But we must
walk before we talk and talk only because we walked it first. Tall order. But very much like Pope Francis.